Reviving Rudolph: The reindeer that almost wasn't

To impress a crowd of schoolchildren, or even adults, just let them know your father was the record producer who gave us “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

“Rudolph had been rejected by every major record company,” storyteller Judy Gail Krasnow told The Log before her presentation at Destin

Library this week. “Three days into his job, it came on his desk and he loved the song ... He fought with Columbia Records, and finally said ‘If you do not let me do this, you’ll never know if you should keep me around.’ ”

They kept him around. Hecky Krasnow would go on to add “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” to his list of hits as well as brokering a deal for Bob Keeshan to host a children’s television show under the name “Captain Kangaroo.”

Krasnow entertained audiences at the library and Destin Elementary School Tuesday by retelling stories of Florida history: Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth, the exploits of Florida cowboy “Bone” Mizell and the tricks of voodoo conjure-man Brother Monday.

Leah McGill of the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation said DES students loved Krasnow’s presentation, but knowing Krasnow’s father was responsible for “Rudolph” really impressed them.

The Foundation brought Gail to Destin with the help of the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the state Division of Cultural Affairs and grants from Silver Sands Factory Stores and Bo Burns State Farm Insurance Agency.

Krasnow told The Log her father had produced children’s records that included “Tubby the Tuba,” “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” and “Baseball

Tips From the Stars” with major leaguer Jackie Robinson, back in the days before rock and roll and television killed off that sector of the musical marketplace.

She tells of learning guitar chords from Burl Ives, meeting singers Rosemary Clooney and Dinah Shore and appearing on “Captain Kangaroo”:

“Mr. Moose dropped his ping-pong balls on the Captain, and me and a couple of other children. I refused to wash my hair — Mr. Moose had dropped ping-pong balls on my head!”

Krasnow said that after she graduated college, she started teaching, but her co-workers kept asking her to put on assemblies and speak.

“I thought, why am I in the classroom? They want me more out of it,” Krasnow said. “I stopped the teaching and went in solely and wholly for performing.”

TALE TELLING
For more from storyteller Judy Gail Krasnow, visit judygailkrasnow.com. You can also purchase her book about her father, “Rudolph, Frosty and Captain Kangaroo.”